Monthly Archives: May 2023
Home At Last . . .
After a so-so breakfast where they kept running out hot food at our Sleep Inn here in Baton Rouge we were loaded up and on our way home by about 9am. And the ‘loading up’ consisted of Jan and myself lugging all our stuff down the hallway and out to the Jeep because the one luggage cart they have had just disappeared.
So after our stay at the Sleep Inn in Pearl, MS two weeks ago at the beginning of our trip, and then this one at the end, Sleep Inn is now off our list.
After getting gas we were on our way over the Mississippi River bridge with no slow-downs, unlike Saturday weeks when there was bumper-to-bumper traffic for 3 or 4 miles from the bridge.
But we did lose almost 20 minutes due to the bumper-to-bumper traffic leading up the Lake Charles bridge, so I guess it all evened out.
After a bathroom break at the TX border rest area, we stopped for gas about 100 miles later at the Buc-ee’s in Baytown, and also to meet up with long-time friend’s Rudy and Caroline Legget who stopped off to welcome us back to Texas and to talk for a bit.
Now only about 45 miles from home, the end was in sight.
And getting back in our area we decided to have linner at Los Ramirez before going home.
Delicious. Glad to have Tex-Mex again.
Finally home afterwards, I turned the water back on, and then set the A/C back from 82° down to our usual 76.
Luckily it didn’t too long to cool down.
We didn’t unpack much, but just took a nap.
There’s always tomorrow.
Thought for the Day:
If you can smile when things go wrong, you already have someone in mind to blame.
I didn’t say it was your FAULT. I just said I was going to blame YOU.
May 27, 2009
El Rushbo & Banyan Trees…
Today Jan and I drove around sightseeing in the ritzy areas of Palm Beach.
One of the places we wanted to drive by was Rush Limbaugh’s compound.
You can’t see much from the road…
But the satellite view shows there’s a lot behind that gate…
Seems like I remember reading he paid $25 million for it.
While we were driving around, the thunderstorms were still rolling in, with the rain coming down in sheets.
One of the neat things around here are the banyan trees. Although normally associated with Africa and India, they seem to do real well around here.
We also drove by the famous Breakers Resort .
We had heard that they have a fabulous Sunday Brunch so we inquired about the price.
It was almost $100.00 per person!
For that price it had better be gold-plated and come with someone to hand feed you.
For lunch we ate at a Mexican restaurant called Amigos.
It was great. So great, in fact, we went back for supper.
Tomorrow we head north to Titusville for a few days.
May 27, 2010
Gillette, WY and the ACA…
Well, we made it out of Billings without getting snowed in this time.
We left Billings a little before 8 am heading for Gillette, WY about 240 miles away. We are going to spend the next four days at the American Coach Association (ACA) National Rally.
It was a pretty uneventful trip, thought we did see some prong horn antelope along the way.
We got into Gillette about 12:30 pm and drove over to the Cam-Plex, a large fairgrounds/meeting complex, and were led to our parking spot by rally helper.
There are about 120 American Coaches here, and 9 vendors.
What was really a surprise for me is that about 3 coaches down from us is someone with the exact same coach as ours in the exact same 4 colors.
At 3:30 pm Jan and I sat in on a seminar given by representative of Cummins Engines, the make of our 350 ISC Cummins engine. Dale Eddy discussed maintenance and upkeep of our engines.
Then at 4:30 we attended a meeting for newcomers to the American Coach Association and got welcomed into the club. We also joined the Happy Wanderers, the ACA chapter for full-timers.
The rest of the afternoon was various social get-togethers, culminating in an hors d’oeuvres hour, followed by a presentation of the history of American Coaches.
We got back to our rig a little after 8 pm and settled in for the night.
May 27, 2011
Flat Irons and Ribeye’s . . .
My day started about 10:30 with hot coffee and some warm lemon braid bread. A great start, let me tell you.
A little after noon, our daughter Brandi called to say hi. She had gotten off early and was on her way home to start the long holiday weekend. She said that our grandson Landon who just turned 9 months a week ago, is now wearing 18 month clothes because he’s so tall.
My grandson, the NBA star!
About 1 Jan headed into Coarsegold to the Peddler’s Fair and Flea Market at the Coarsegold Historic Village, after making a stop at the bank and the Radio Shack in Oakhurst.
While she was gone I got back to work on the tail light problem. Picking up where I left off yesterday, I found that the problem of intermittent lights from the coach was caused by a defective 
3M Scotchlok inline splice that supplies 12 volts to the 5 wire to 4 wire converter box. The splice had come apart inside so that it looked OK, but caused the power to come and go. I replaced it with a new one and now I was good to go on the coach end.
To do a final test and check the brake light signal requires the coach to be running so the brake system is aired up and working. But I decided to wait until tomorrow to do this
A little further inspection quickly found two problems. A loose screw connection in the plug that connects the rig and the toad, and a bad crimp splice inside the left tail light housing.
Both of these were quickly repaired, so about 4:30 we headed into Oakhurst, and, after a lot of discussion, ended up at the Sweetwater Steakhouse.
We had passed by this place a number of times and it was always busy. And now we know why.
Jan had the Flat Iron steak and I had my usual Ribeye. And we both agreed they were great. I know mine was the best steak I’ve had in a long time. The place is not cheap, but it’s highly recommended.
And what would a great meal be, without a good cappuccino to top it off. So we did that too.
May 27, 2013
To all our Veterans . . .
Well, we had a little bit of rain today, just sprinkling on and off most of the day. It’s been staying in the 50’s and 60’s all the time we’ve been here, but by Friday it’s going to start getting into the 70’s. So it’s time to move north again.
Thursday morning we’ll leave here at South Lake Tahoe and head about 215 miles north to Likely, CA for one night and then another 235 miles up to the Bend/Sunriver Thousand Trails park on Friday. We stayed here a couple of years ago and are really looking forward to getting back for a couple of weeks.
I had originally planned to do some stuff outside today but the rain discouraged me from that, so I did inside stuff. One thing I did was finish up adding a 3rd 12v socket on the dashboard. Two is just never enough, and using one of those splitters just leaves too many cables laying around.
After a quiet afternoon, we decided to have dinner at the Lake Tahoe Pizza Company right outside the park entrance, and right across the street from Passaretti’s Italian Restaurant where we ate last night. The reviews were very good, and so was the food.
They make pretty much everything from scratch; their pizza dough, their pizza sauce, their salad dressings, everything. Really good. But unfortunately we probably won’t have a chance to go back this trip.
Jan and I watched Rock My RV with Bret Michaels last night and thought it was pretty decent. It’s two 30 minute episodes together, each one a different project. The first one was a family’s 1998 Southwind Storm gasser, and the next was a T-shirt company’s tour bus.
The first episode was my favorite because I could relate to it more, although with all the stuff they did to it, I think it would have been cheaper to just buy the family a new RV. They pretty much stripped it down completely on the inside, and built it out from scratch. They even added living room and bedroom slides and an complete Power Gear leveler system. And then to top it off, a new paint job.
My question was after they added all this stuff, how much carry capacity did they still have?
The thing about the 2nd remodel that I found interesting was the fact that, rather than repaint the tour bus, they did a complete vinyl wrap. Since I’ve had the thought in my head about getting our coach repainted some day, I was interested in the cost of the two methods, because I had wondered about using a wrap instead of repainting.
On the first episode they mentioned that a complete paint job runs between $15,000 and $30,000, which matches up with what I’ve heard. But I’d never heard any prices for a complete RV wrap job.
Well, on the 2nd episode they quoted a complete RV vinyl warp at between $5,000 and $7,000. A much nicer amount. Sounds like it might be worth looking at further.
We like the show and have set our DVR to record all the episodes. I hope they continue to do some private RV’s, because if it becomes “All Tour Buses, All The Time”, it’ll just be a new version of “Extreme RV’s”, and we’ll stop watching.
Tomorrow we’re going to take another trip up to Virginia City to ride the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, and see some of the other attractions that didn’t open until the Memorial Day weekend. But, so we see some different scenery, we’ll take a new route and take the Carson City route into Virginia City.
May 27, 2014
Twice-Baked . . .
I didn’t finally get to bed until about 3 this morning, so I slept in until about 11. Then Jan and I headed out for our walk about 11:30. It was really nice this morning, mostly cloud with a nice breeze.
About 2pm Jan and I headed out for some shopping. We are looking a small shelf unit or cart to go at the end of the kitchen part of the slide. But it has to be moveable so the slide can come in. I think I’ve found something on Amazon, but thought we’d check locally before we ordered it.
But our stops at Lowe’s and Menard’s didn’t yield anything we liked, so I’ll order it online when we get home. Should be here Thursday.
On the way home we made a quick stop at Martin’s for a few things for our get-together tonight. Then it was back to the rig so Jan could prepare her Twice-Baked Potato Casserole and Garlic French Bread for tonight’s meal.
She was also nice enough to tell me to go take a nap, but I think it was just to get me out of her hair for a while. ‘Me time’, she calls it.
I don’t care what she calls it. I got a nap.
Joining us tonight was Al Hasselbart, the official Historian of the RV Museum here in Elkhart. We’ve known Al for a number of years, and it’s always fun to get together.
And along with Jan’s Twice-Baked Potato Casserole and Garlic French Bread, we ate until we hurt. In fact so much that no one wanted ‘dessert, or even ask about it.
Finishing up for today, I found a new toy. It’s a set of 3 remote controllable AC outlets, and two remotes. Each remote can control any switch and it has about a 60 foot ranges.
Super Switch Indoor Wireless Remote Control
Each outlet can handle 1000 Watts so it should be pretty reliable. I’ve got some ideas about how I want to use them, so I’ll let you know how they work.
Tomorrow, Shipshewana, maybe? We’ll see.
May 27, 2015
Almost As Good . . .
This blog covers the first day of our trip back to Prescott, on Tuesday, the 27th of May.
(I know, I know. I’ll get caught up eventually.)
I’m going to get back on schedule with today’s trip and then catch up with our weekend reunion after we’re back in Prescott tomorrow.
Today was the long run of our two day trip back to Arizona and our rig. With our stops, the 826 miles normally takes us about 14 hours, so we were up at 5am to leave at 6. Last night after we got back to the hotel from our day on the Mississippi, I went back out and filled up, and also picked up a couple of roast beef sandwiches from the Arby’s across the street, a little change from our usual breakfast sandwiches.
We pulled out of the motel parking lot a few minutes after 6, so pretty much right on schedule and headed west on I-70. We had thought about staying an extra day, or even taking 3 days to get back to the rig rather than 2, but it looked like we’d miss our window of opportunity.
Like when we came up here last week, the weather forecast showed Partly Cloudy all along our trip. But if we left a day or two later, or took longer, than the forecast was for Heavy Thunderstorms all along the way.
So today was the day.
But as would happen, as we were traveling around the south of St. Louis, the forecasted “Partly Cloudy” started coming down in sheets, but luckily only for about 20 minutes, and then it cleared up.
When our daughter Brandi called about 7:15, we were hoping it was to say they were back in Houston. They were scheduled on a 5:40am flight from St. Louis back to Houston, but as it turned out, because of all the flooding in Houston, Hobby Airport was not letting anyone land. They finally got off the ground about 8:45 after sitting on the plane for three hours. But they made it home safely so it all worked out.
We stopped for lunch in Tulsa at the same Raisin’ Cane’s Chicken Fingers we ate at on our trip up to Illinois. Still great. Cane’s has become our new favorite chicken place.
Although long, the rest of the trip went smoothly, getting us into Amarillo a little before 9pm. We wanted to eat before we got to the motel, but had been debating where. We had thought about the Big Texas Steakhouse, but it was really too late for a big steak.
Friends had been recommending the Coyote Bluff Café as a great hamburger place, and finding it was only one exit from our motel, we decided to give it a try.
Jan thinks it’s as good as Stomp’s down in Kemah, TX. Don’t know if I’d go quite that far but it’s close. Very close.
But you sure wouldn’t know it from the building. From the outside it looks like a dump.
And the inside kind of is too.
But the burgers were anything but. Plump 1/2 burgers, juicy and perfectly grilled and just delicious.
But unfortunately, after that great meal, it was on to the Motel from Hell.
But more about that tomorrow.
May 27, 2016
Email From The Dead . . .
Today started wet and dreary and then went downhill from there. It was raining when I got up at 11 and that continued all the rest of time until we left for Clear Lake around 2pm.
And then as soon as we got out on I-10 it just POURED down, slowing everyone until we were doing about 25 mph, in a 75 mph area. And then one person, just one, decided to put their emergency flashers on. And then almost everyone else did.
And suddenly, what had been a easy to track and separate group of vehicles in front of us became a swirling, flashing mass of orange and red lights, with no way to really tell who was stopped and who was moving. A bunch of maroons.
We made a pit stop at Brandi’s, and also picked up a couple of packages waiting for us. Then it was back on the road to Clear Lake. And then the real slow down began to appear.
Based on the live traffic data on our Garmin GPS, our 1 hour trip down to League City was going to take an additional 2 hours and 59 minutes, for a total of 4 hours. Bummer. But as we slowly got closer, the delay whittled down until the trip only took 2 and a half hours. Better than 4 hours, I guess.
We had originally planned to drop off my client’s laptop at their home in the Brittany Bay area of League City, but due to our delay, we didn’t have time before we had to meet our friends for dinner at 6pm. So our first stop was at our son Chris’ for a potty break, as well as to pick up our mail and drop off one of our Captain’s Chair’s armrests. Or rather just the insides without the foam or the leather cover.
I wanted to see if he could make me six new armrests to replace the ones I have now,. The original ones were made from two different pieces of OSB (Oriented Strand Board), or particle board. These two pieces were glued together around a steel armature that mounted the pivot rod at one end.
But over the years the glue has deteriorated and the arms have started to come apart. I put a couple of them of them back together using screws, but the screws just wallowed and came loose after a while.
So my idea is to see if Chris can cut six new armrest wooden frames out of 2×4’s. Then I’ll install the armatures in each new frame and mount them back on the chairs. BTW if you wondered how to get the armrests off the chairs, it’s really pretty easy.
Fold the armrest up until it’s vertical and parallel to the chair back. Then push in on the arm pivot point and rotate the arm on further back until it is again horizontal. At this point pull out on the arm as you rotate it back and forth slightly. Then just pull it completely free. Easy Peazy.
We meet our friends, Bob & Beth Young at Barcenas Mexican Restaurant. Right outside our subdivision, we eaten here for 20 years or more, and it’s always great.
We’ve known Bob and Beth for a long time, and have watched their five kids grow up, and we always have great time catching up.
Good food and great friends. It doesn’t get much better.
Finally saying our goodbyes a little after 7:30 we heading down to League City to drop the client’s laptop before turning around and heading back to Columbus. And after a pit stop at the Flying J in Brookshire, we finally got home about 10:30pm.
And although we didn’t see any problems when we came through, we did see three cars parked back up the hill from the low-lying bridge at the park entrance.
Don’t know if it was this bad,
or even this bad.
But I’m glad we weren’t trapped outside the park and had to wade in.]
I got an email a couple of days ago that really gave me a start. It was from a friend of ours . . . a dead friend of ours.
Our long-time friend Gina Ellis died a little over 3 years ago, and the SPAM email I received had the right (kind of unusual) name, but not the right ISP address. It was obviously one of those emails that want you to click the enclosed link, but strangely, it referred to me as ‘Greg’, while most of these are to ‘Gregory’.
Gina, we miss you.
And finishing up on a departed friends note, this past Wednesday we lost two more long-time friends, Richard Horner and Ron Walters.
They too will be missed.
May 27, 2017
What the Fudd?
It was really nice to sleep in this morning, snuggled in with our heated mattress pad. We both sleep a lot better when the bedroom is really cool, which works well with 40°-50° nights we’ve been having.
A number of other rigs starting moving in yesterday, I guess for the holiday weekend. There were only about six rigs when we got here, but a bunch more now.
And there’s more rigs here than what you can see in these photos.
In addition, when we got home we found a note on our wipers from Dave and Joanne, a couple who were parked next to us a week or so ago when we overnighted at the Pioneer RV Park in Hermiston, OR. They’re here in the park so we’ll try to hook up with them tomorrow.
A little after 3pm Jan and I headed in to RC to have linner at local Fuddruckers. We did stop off at the park office to re-up for our second week here. Then it was on to the Fuddruckers in Rushmore Mall. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve eaten at Fudd’s. Don’t know why it’s been so long, since it’s always good.
My favorite is their 8 oz. Ribeye Sandwich, a tender, juicy cut of meat. I got mine with bacon, and then added mayo, tomatoes, sliced onions, and pickles. And we split an order of potato wedges.
Jan went with a 1/2 pound burger, with grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, and guacamole, as well as other fixing’s.
Very good, but the service was a lot slower than we’ve experienced in the past.
Our next stop was a nearby Books-A-Million so Jan could look for a couple of magazines she wanted, but no luck. Our next stop was supposed to be Lowe’s, but we decided to save it for another day, and head on over to Wal-Mart for some groceries.
Then it was home for the night.
One thing I noticed kind of funny is that there is only a Lowe’s here in RC, but no Home Depot. Seems like usually they’re located within sight of each other.
Tomorrow we’ll stay home and try to avoid all the holiday hoorah. Jan fixed up a big batch of her famous chili so we’ll have that tomorrow and maybe Monday,
May 27, 2018
Oh My Gosh, That Smell!
I spent most of the day building a new website for a client. It was a pretty basic site with just seven pages of information and not much else.
So I decided to try out the new GoCentral website builder from Godaddy. Supposedly not near as powerful as their full-blown Website Builder 7, but it’s a lot cheaper.
GoCentral was dumbed down so that pretty much anyone can put together a nice looking website and put it online. But it does this by limiting your choices and forcing you to use templates.
So next time, unless it’s a very simple site, I probably won’t use it again. It’s just too crippled. I think it might have been easier to just code it in good, old fashioned HTML.
FWIW it’s worth, here’s the site. http://huntsvillebigstorage.com/
A little before 2pm Jan and I headed up to Webster to have lunch at Rudy’s BBQ. Getting out of the truck, Jan said, “Oh My Gosh. That Smell.” And she was right. My mouth was watering before we even got in the door.
Although they were pretty busy we only had to wait in line for a couple of minutes before we were ordering our food.
Jan got the Baked Potato with Lean Brisket and a serving of their Three Bean Salad, while I got 8oz of Moist Brisket and a serving of their Green Chile Stew. All just as delicious as usual.
As I’ve mentioned before, Rudy’s is one of our three favorite BBQ chains, along with Famous Dave’s BBQ and Sonny’s BBQ. And Jim & Nick’s BBQ is a close 4th.
And as far as single locations, it’s Charlie Vergos Rendezvous in Memphis, TN, Golden Rule BBQ in Birmingham, AL, and of course Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ in Decatur, AL.
Big Bob’s is listed as one of the Top Ten BBQ in the US, and Golden Rule first opened in 1891, and is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the state of Alabama.
And wouldn’t you know it, we’ll be eating at most of these on our upcoming trip next month. Then, following up on the ‘oldest’ restaurant theme, we’ll also be eating at Weidman’s in Meridian, MS on our way home, which has been around since 1870.
YUM!
Now you see why our blog Title is Our RV Adventures or Eating Our Way Across the USA.
On another note, on my way to the restroom at Rudy’s, I noticed this large poster on the wall.
I assume that it was someone who doesn’t want to survive an ‘Active Shooter’ who erased the date of the seminar, though it looks like it’s this Wednesday, the 30th.
But this being Texas, and the fact that one guy was open carrying in the parking lot, and that I noticed 3 or 4 suspicious bulges under people’s light summer clothing, I would imagine that it would be the ‘Active Shooter’ who wouldn’t survive very long. Good.
After Rudy’s we stopped by my client’s so I could pick up something, and also find out why the Shipping computer went offline. Again. When I tried to remote in last night to start a system image backup, I couldn’t connect because it was offline.
I finally got it working again, but I don’t know what happened to it. Hope it’s not something to do with the MS update problem from the other day.
Then coming back down to the Dickinson area, we dropped some more stuff off at the storage room. Slowly, but surely.
The Headline of the Day:
From the U.K. – Knives are too sharp and filing them down is solution to soaring violent crime, judge says.
Wait. You mean taking away all the guns didn’t stop the killing? Who knew?
May 27, 2019
No Getup, Or Go . . .
Today, being Memorial Day, my client’s office was closed, but I’m not sure I could have made it in anyway.
Neither one of us wanted to even get out of bed, much less actually do anything, you know like unpack the four big suitcases littering the living room and the kitchen. But after getting some coffee into our veins, we were able to kind of move about. But neither of us felt like doing any unpacking, so mostly we just sat and talked about our trip and the fantastic time we had.
While we were still in London, I ordered a 10” digital photo frame from Amazon so it would be here when we got home. We already have one that displays family and RV travel photos, but I thought I get a separate one to just for our trip. So I did start going through the 2447 photos that I made along the way to decide which ones I want to load into it. But even that turned out to be more work than I wanted to do.
Our son Chris was in town for the day, so about 3:30 I called an Uber to take us up to Webster to meet him for lunch at King Food, and also give him the presents we had brought home for him, Linda, and Miss Piper.
Readers will remember that right before we left on our trip the radiator on our truck started leaking, but we had so much going on that I decided not to fool with it until we got back. I was thinking I’d just have a rental car waiting for us this morning but then discovered that the local Enterprise office wasn’t open due to the holiday. So I ordered for tomorrow morning.
Getting back to the rig, we did start making some inroads into the whole suitcase thing, at least enough to get some laundry going and putting away some things, but our hearts, and bodies, weren’t really into it.
Part of the problem is that we’re both still jet-lagged, more so than when we flew over to Europe. That, coupled with exhaustion, I guess.
Jan fell asleep on the sofa about 6pm, then came to bed when I did about midnight. But then she was up about 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Finishing up, a teaser from our visit to Versailles –The Hall of Mirrors.
May 27, 2021
Phones, Old and New . . .
Jan and I were on our way up to Clear Lake about 12:30 this afternoon, a little earlier than usual because I got a text saying that my new S21 Ultra phone had been delivered at the office, so we wanted to pick it up first before we had lunch at Snooze.
Not only was I impatient to get my hands on it, but I wanted to get it charging while we were eating breakfast so I brought one of my power bank chargers with me.
Then while we were waiting for our food, I opened the box and then let Jan help me pull off the protective film on the screen (Big Bang joke).
But when I tried to use the included USB cable to charge the phone, I ran into a problem. The cable had a USC-C connector on both ends, not just one. Normally there’s a USB 3.0 connector that plugs into charging ports and the USB-C on the other end.
But with the same ‘C’ connector on both ends it wouldn’t plug into my power bank, so I went back out to the car to get my cable from there.
While I was sitting there I went online and ordered a USB 2.0 to USB adapter like this so I can plug the cable into standard charger ports.
And I also ordered a second wireless charger so we’ll both have one.
Before we just had one, since only my S8+ could use one, and not Jan’s S5.
Turns out it was already about 60% charged, but it was 100% by the time we finished our meal. I did at least turn it on to watch it boot up but then turned it off when it asked to start the initialization.
Since I’m going to have the phone number switched from my S8+ to the S21, I thought I’d just let Verizon do it all, because after that they’ll need to switch Jan’s number on her S5 over to the S8+.
But I did download the User Guide so I could check out all the new features, which is where I discovered the possible use for the USB ‘C’ to ‘C’ connector.
It can be used to transfer all the data from the old phone to the new phone.
Then it was back down to the NTB to get the new tires for our Jeep. With that done, it was a quick HEB stop, a quick Cowboy Coffee stop, and then home for the night.
May 27, 2022 Uncategorized
Since 1870 . . .
After grabbing a quick light breakfast at our La Quinta, we were on the way up I-59 by 9:30 with our first stop at Weidmann’s Restaurant in downtown Meridian MS.
Weidmann’s has been around since 1870 and is well-known throughout the South. We’ve eaten here a number of times over the years, and it’s a must-stop when we’re in the area.
One thing unique about Weidmann’s is the handmade crock filled with homemade Peanut Butter on every table, along with a basket of assorted crackers. The crocks date from WWII when there was a shortage of butter, so someone suggested that the owner substitute peanut butter. And a legend was born.
Jan got the Muffuletta with their homemade BBQ potato chips,
while I went with my usual 6 oz. New York Strip Po’boy, also with the BBQ chips.
Normally we would have started off with an order of their Fried Green Tomatoes, but we decided instead to finish up by sharing an order of their Praline Cheesecake Ala Mode.
And as it turned out, we both had half of our entrees left over anyway. So leftovers for later.
We got into Athens about 5pm, and got settled in. We’ll be here until Wednesday when we head down to Birmingham for more old friend get-togethers,
Tomorrow we’re getting together with my cousin Marjorie for lunch down at Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ in Decatur.
The 6th And Final Leg . . .
We were on our way home this morning a little after 11am, heading for Baton Rouge, about 225 miles away.
The worst slowdown was actually right after we got back on I-10 leaving Fairhope and crossing the Mobile Causeway leading to the tunnel. Traffic was pretty much bumper to bumper 10 mph for about 10 miles. You do the math.
Getting into Baton Rouge, our first stop was at the Sonny’s BBQ here, the sixth and final leg of our Southern BBQ Tour.
If you’re keeping count, it’s been:
Sonny’s BBQ
Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ
Jim ‘N Nick’s BBQ
Golden Rule BBQ
Sonny’s BBQ
Sonny’s BBQ
Finishing up another delicious meal, we drove over to our nearby Sleep Inn Hotel, the same place we stayed last year.
Tomorrow we’ve got a last leg of about 300 miles to get back to Santa Fe and home.
Much as we’ve enjoyed this trip, we’re both looking forward to getting back to our own bed.
Thought For The Day:
Never Question Authority. They Don’t Know Either.
Since I know a few of you don’t make it all the way down through the Retro-Blogs™,
I thought I’d repost up here our time on our European Viking River Cruise today in 2019.
May 26, 2019
Homeward Bound . . .
Before our trip home today we spent several hours last night carefully weighing our luggage over and over.
Did you know a single sox weighs 3 oz.?
We were trying to max our two large checked bags right up to the 50 # limit, finally getting one of them up to 49.9 and the other one right on 50# by using the digital scale we had brought with us.
Then I got my carry-on right up to the 17# limit allowed for them. So then leaving out of travel clothes, I wedged all the rest into Jan’s carry-on, and, holding my breath, weighed it.
25.8 pounds!
Yikes!
Ok, if we each wear 4 shirts, 3 pair of pants, 6 pair of underwear, and 2 pair of shoes, we might get in under the wire. But somehow I don’t think that’s going to work either. Then Jan remembered that when we were checking in at the gate to our Lufthansa flight from Houston to Frankfurt last month they offered to also check in our carry-on’s as well as our big bags.
So Jan had the idea to just check in her carry-on along with her big bag, which means the 25# wouldn’t matter. So with a plan in hand, we were up at 7am, downstairs for breakfast at 8, and sitting in the lobby waiting for our ride by 9:30am.
Advised that we should be at Heathrow Airport 4 hours before our scheduled flight at 14:10, we were there a little before 10. Only to find out that our flight was going to be delayed, but only for about 10 minutes. So no problem.
But after we got through TSA (no cavity’s searched) and were at our gate, we were told the flight had slipped 45 minutes. Then we were told that our plane was late coming in from the States, and we were pushed back an hour. And that caused all the dominos to fall, further screwing over our schedule.
Gates are booked for a flight at a specific time, so if a plane is too early or too late arriving there may be another plane at that gate. Which is why as our flight got pushed back later and later, our specific gate number became ‘iffy’. But finally about an hour and 15 minutes late, we were boarded on our Boeing 787-9 and waiting for push back from the gate.
But that didn’t happen. As our departure got pushed back later and later, we also lost our slot in the flight path that we were scheduled to take home. So a new flight plan had to be calculated and then approved. But that resulted in a longer path home, so we had to take on another 10,000 pounds of jet fuel.
So finally, two hours and 10 minutes late, we were rotating and in the air for a now-10 hour flight.
They were able to make up some time by pushing the speed, staying at 34,000 feet and almost 600 mph for most of the flight, leaving us with views like this.
We finally got into Houston about an hour and 10 minutes late. And after getting through Customs, we met our driver and were on our way back to Santa Fe, getting back to the rig about 10pm.
Safe, sound, and with a lot of really great memories. And totally exhausted.
Now, after we get unpacked and settled in, I’ll start going back and filling in the missing days on our trip of a lifetime.
Stay tuned.
May 26, 2009
Two Georges on the Waterway…
Jan and I spent all day hunkered down in the coach riding out some really bad weather coming thru.
About 5 pm we headed over to our friend’s house and then went to Two George’s Restaurant for supper. This is a really great place right on the Intercoastal Waterway.
We made a big meal of it since this will be our last time to get together.
May 26, 2010
So far, no snow…yet
We left Riverfront RV Park in Garrison, MT about 8:45 am heading for Billings, MT about 270 miles away. We had planned to leave about 8 but it was in the mid 30’s outside, and the bed was warm, and we overslept. What can I say.
This park had some really nice views. Here’s a close-up of the mountain I showed you yesterday.
And here’s the view in the other direction. You just can’t beat views like this.
But before we left I wanted to put some air in one of my tires, so I started up the coach engine and went outside to air up the tire. All of a sudden I hear the engine accelerate to what sounded like wide open throttle. Running around to the door I looked in and saw Mister standing on the left hand control panel looking out the window at what I had been doing. Unfortunately, this meant he was standing on the cruise control switch. When you’re idling, the cruise control allows you to set the engine speed.
Mister set it to wide open!
But luckily there didn’t seem to be any damage done.
Anyway, about an hour after we left, and after a long slow climb, we crossed the Continental Divide at 6393 ft. and started back down. There was still a lot a snow along the road up there.
About 11:30 am we stopped at a rest area and Jan fixed sandwiches for lunch. Then it was back on the road.
Then, about 1:30 we stopped in Big Timber to take on diesel. The last time I got diesel in Washington state, it cost $3.70 a gallon. Today it was $3.04.
A big difference!
We got into Billings about 3 pm and got parked at the Billings’ Trailer Village. It was certainly nice to have better weather than the last time we were in Billings.
Here’s how it looked today.
When we first came thru on our way to Alaska the end of March of 2008, we had only planned to stay a couple of days to visit a friend of Jan’s. However the weather didn’t cooperate.
We ended up staying a week due to heavy snow. Here’s how it looked then. Here’s my beautiful wife taking in the snow.
And here’s Mister first encounter with snow. He put one foot down on the step and reconsidered going outside.
Then he just sat in the door and looked around. He absolutely refused to go outside. After all, he’s a Texas cat. He doesn’t do snow.
Then, coming back from Alaska the first part of October 2008, we again stopped in Billings for a couple of days, And again we got snowed in for a week. With even more snow this time.
14 inches!
But this time we broke the jinx. But as Jan said, “the day’s not over yet.” We’ll see.
About 4 pm we headed out for some errands and dinner. We first stopped by Sam’s and picked up some kitty litter, then it was on to Great Clips to get my bi-annual haircut.
Which took about 5 minutes. Hah!
Then it was off to Famous Dave’s, one of our favorite BBQ places, for dinner. They have a great new BBQ sauce called “80 Proof” made with Jack Daniels. And it is good!
We got home about 5:30 and Jan went across the street to do some laundry. She likes to do our throw rugs in the bigger commercial machines. It’s quicker.
While she was gone, I vacuumed the rugs and floors, and cleaned some spots on the rug.
Then it was in for the night.
Tomorrow we head for Gillette, WY, about 238 miles away, for 4 days of the American Coach Rally.
May 26, 2011
Sugar Pine Choo Choo . . .
We were up early this morning (well, 9 am is early for me) because I was going to get to play choo choo.
Well, they probably won’t let me play with it, so I’ll just have to settle for riding on it.
We headed out about 10 am to ride the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad located about 25 miles north of the park, on the way to Yosemite National Park.
The YMSP railroad is laid out on some of the old routes of the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company that ran from 1899 to 1931. When the company closed down, they pulled up all the track and sold off the rolling stock.
But then in 1961 Rudy Stauffer started rebuilding the railroad, laying down some of the old track along a 4 mile loop following the old roadbed, to create an excursion railroad.
The reconstituted railroad began service with the purchase of a Shay locomotive from the West Side Lumber Company railway of Tuolumne, California. Built in 1928, No. 10 is recognized as the largest ‘narrow gauge’ Shay locomotive ever constructed.
Narrow gauge means that the tracks are closer together than on a standard gauge railroad, in this case 3 feet vs. 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches. Narrow gauge track was used in locations like this because it was cheaper to build where the clearances and the curves are tighter.
Shays were known for their pulling power and were used in many logging and mining situations. What gave them their strength was their unique way of getting power to the driving wheels.
Unlike conventional steam locomotives like this 4-8-4 below that uses side rods that only power the large center wheels,
the Shays have gears and drive shafts that power all 12 wheels giving superior traction and power
They also had on display this center cab yard switcher that I think is a GE 50 or 55 ton model from the late 1950’s, but I’m not sure. It is apparently not operational.
In the engine house I also found Shay No. 15, the second engine on the railroad, though it looks like it’s under repair.
The rolling stock consists of two types of cars, a covered coach,
and these open-air versions, made from very large logs.
About 11:15 the conductor called “All Aboard” and we headed out on our 1 hour trip.
At the half-way point the train stopped to take on water and give the passengers a chance to stretch their legs.
It also gave me a chance to check out the cab of the locomotive. That mess looks worse than working on an RV.
Here you can see the firebox that makes the 200 psi of superheated steam that powers No. 10. The locomotive originally burned wood, but was later converted to burn fuel oil, also known as bunker oil. However now, they burn used motor oil, which doesn’t give them as much power, but is much cheaper.
Finishing up our ride, we checked out the museum, bookstore and gift shop, along with their gold panning instruction and demonstration.
After a great day on the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad, we headed back into Oakhurst about 1:15 pm. We had a really good time and highly recommend this to anyone in the area.
In the summertime they even have a Moonlight Special on Wednesday and Saturday nights complete with a BBQ steak dinner, entertainment, and a moonlight train ride (well, if the moon is out, otherwise it’s just a train ride in the dark, which can be fun too.)
Heading back into Oakhurst we decided to have a late lunch at Todd’s Cookhouse BBQ, our favorite local BBQ joint. It seems like this place just gets better and better every time we go.
Coming back to the park, we stopped off at the PO for our mail and some stamps, and then the NAPA Auto Parts store in Coarsegold for diesel antifreeze.
Our final stop was of course, for cappuccinos. I think we’re hooked now.
That’s about it for today.
There’s always tomorrow.
May 26, 2013
Wheeeeeee!
They just opened the new Texas SkyScreamer at the Six Flags over Texas in Arlington. And at 400 feet, this one of seven in the US is the tallest. The next runner-up tops out at 242 feet at Six Flags over Georgia in Atlanta.
At the top you’re whirling in a 124 foot circle at about 35 mph. The shorter towers rotate you at 43 mph, I guess due to less stress on the towers.
My kind of ride.
This might be worth a trip to Dallas when we’re back in Houston, just to give it a try. Now Jan might be a whole ‘nother story.
What about you? Wanna join me?
Aunt Sherry posted this photo of Master Landon enjoying himself at Chuck E. Cheese. Our daughter Brandi said they’re supposed to have the house closing on Thursday, and then the moving company comes Friday to start the move to their new house.
Jan and I were both a little under the weather this morning so we decided to postpone our movie. We had planned to try the buffet at the Horizon Casino after the movie, but with no movie, we decided to just do the buffet. But about 5 minutes before we were ready to leave, I decided to check Yelp for reviews on the place. And I’m glad I did.
There are 4 casinos here in the area. Two of them have $13-15 buffets and two have $30 buffets. And according to Yelp, the two cheaper ones are really, really bad. I mean, how many reviews do you see that say they gave the buffet one star because you’re not allowed to give no stars, Or that everyone in another group got food poisoning. Another group took a couple of bites and then asked for their money back.
So those places were out, and neither one of us wanted to pay $60 for dinner, so the other two were out. After a quick discussion, we decided to go back to Passaretti’s Italian Restaurant, the place we first ate at a couple of days after we got here. And even better it’s right outside the park.
Jan had her Meat Ravioli and I had the Spaghetti Marinara with Meatballs, exactly what we had the first time. Just as good as the first time. And just like last time, there were a number of large parties there, but our food still came promptly.
After dinner we drove down the road to Raley’s for some groceries, and an after-dinner coffee at the Peet’s located inside the store. This was our second time there, and it has been our new favorite coffee place. At least to us, the coffee is better than what we’ve had at Starbuck’s. Just saying.
As far as the movie thing, we’ll see about tomorrow.
May 26, 2014
Dogs And Brats . . .
After talking we decided to do hot dogs and brats on the grill this evening, so we will pick up some stuff for this.
About 1pm Jan and I drove over to the nearby Wal-Mart for groceries and stuff. And one of the ‘stuffs’ we picked up was a new Farberware Countertop Convection Oven like this one, except ours is black.
And it even has a rotisserie. Not that I ever think we’ll use it.
We tend not to do a lot of rotisseriering. But Jan is giddy over her new toy.
It’s also NOT digital which has caused us problems on the last two toaster ovens we’ve had.
Leaving Wal-Mart we stopped off at Martin’s Grocery to pick some other things. From there we got a couple of fresh salad items, I.e. Steakhouse Potato Salad and Broccoli and Cheese Salad. We also picked up a Coconut Cream Pie for dessert.
And we got some of their fresh muffins for breakfast the rest of the week.
About 5:30 we headed next door and got the hot dogs and brats on the grill. It was a perfect evening for it, with most of the holiday rigs having left the park for parts unknown.
The food was great, and the dessert a little later inside, was really good too. All in all, a very nice day.
Here’s a video thought y’all might enjoy.
Salut Salon. A really great quartet. And funny too.
May 26, 2016
It Only Took Eight Hours . . .
I finished up the Dell laptop repair/OS-reinstall last night, after getting the last of the Win10 updates downloaded. After replacing the hard drive, I had to first reinstall Win7 since that’s what was on the computer originally. Next using the Product Key on the bottom tag, I activated Win7 and downloaded 1.2 GB of updates. FWIW you can not install Win10 over a non-activated Win7, 8, or 8.1. It just won’t let you do it.
Next up, because the client wanted Win10, I installed it and then downloaded 500 Mb of Win10 updates, and that finally wrapped it up. I’ll drop it off while we’re down in Clear Lake tomorrow afternoon.
On the subject of Windows 10, for those of you still resisting Microsoft forcing it down your throat, or in your computer anyway, just remember Windows 10 upgrades are essentially the date rape of the computer world. You wake up and realize what has happened when you were asleep.
Many people have reported stepping away from their computer for a few minutes only to come back to find it in the middle of a Win10 install.
If this happens to you, after it’s finished installing, it asks you to agree to the Terms and Conditions. If you click “don’t agree”, it undoes the install, putting everything back the way it was.
But if you want to put a stop to this before it all starts, here’s some help. Check out Never10.
It blocks any further attempts to install Win10, and if the files have already been download to your computer, it will delete them. And if you ever decide you do want to install Win10, just run the program again. So check it out. Never10
What’s up with the commercials when we’re streaming network TV shows?
Occasionally we will stream a network show that we missed for some reason, either bad weather knocking out the satellite, or we can only record two shows at a time, so couldn’t record the third one, etc.
Last night we were catching on an episode of Once Upon A Time that we missed a while back. We have three later episodes on the DVR, so we needed to watch this one first to keep them in order. But as happened previously when we’ve streamed network shows, the commercials are unwatchable.
The show itself streams without a glitch, but when the commercial break starts it all grinds to a halt. First there’s 15-20 seconds of just black, then the ad starts, but usually stutters, starting and stopping, and usually freezing at some point. Then another 10-15 seconds of black, and it all starts over again. For 6 long commercials.
And 10 minutes later, it does it all over again. And again.
So if they can stream the show with no problems, why not the commercials?
Last night I finally remembered to bring my Garmin GPS in from the truck so I could update the maps and software to the latest versions. It seems like I always think about doing this when we’re in Conroe, but the speed and reliability of the 3G (or 4G, for that matter) there just isn’t up to downloading 2+ GB of data.
But with the 2.75 – 3.00 Mbps I’m getting on 3G (and 25 Mbps on 4G) here at Colorado River, this is the time to do it. So I got out my laptop, hooked up the GPS to it, and started the download. And eight hours later, at 3am when I went to bed, it had just finished up. So now I’m good for another year.
Recently while I looking for something on the Home Depot site I can across a post about a couple’s DIY paint job on their 1992 camper.
They started out with this:
![DIY RV Repaint 1_thumb[1]](https://ourrvadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/DIY-RV-Repaint-1_thumb1.png "DIY RV Repaint 1_thumb[1]")
And ended up with this.
![DIY RV Repaint 2_thumb[1]](https://ourrvadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/DIY-RV-Repaint-2_thumb1.png "DIY RV Repaint 2_thumb[1]")
You can check it here at DIY Camper Paint Job. And if you keep scrolling down, they detail the interior upgrades they did. Nice.
May 26, 2017
Moose and Mines . . .
We had a visitor this morning a little before I got up. Bob Fitz, a blog reader, came by to say HI, and let us know he and his wife were in Keystone yesterday when we were. They’re visiting Rapid City for a few days, and invited us to stop by and visit when we’re again in the Sioux Falls area.
It’s still going down into the high 30’s/low 40’s every night, but it’s supposed to start warming up a little in the next couple of weeks.
And speaking of a ‘couple of weeks, after we had been here a couple of days, we started talking about staying a few extra days past our one week stay. But when it all boiled down, we reupped for a second week. Which means we won’t leave here until June 6th.
Unless we decide to stay longer.
Elk Creek is unlimited PassPort America, so we can linger pretty much as long as we like. And one reason for us to stay longer is that Jan used to live here.
She was here when she was in 2nd grade while her father was stationed at Ellsworth AFB. So she remembers places around here that she would like to revisit. And at least one of them is still around.
That one is the Dinosaur Park, a group of dino statues built on top of a hill near downtown Rapid City. Constructed in the mid-1930’s to capitalize on tourists visiting nearby Mt. Rushmore, the city hoped to keep some of the tourist’s dollars in town.
And while we were at the Safeway, I looked up on top of the nearby hill and saw one of the reptiles on the loose.
Finishing up on yesterday’s 1880 Train, trip we were surprised at how many large homes were located out in the Black Hills National Forest.
Don’t know if this guy had a lot of firewood left over from this past winter, but he’s certainly ready for next winter.
Turns out that there were about 60+ mining claims that predated the 1897 creation of the Black Hills NF, and today many of those claims are now the location of family homes.
But some of the mine facilities can still be found along the route, mostly in the Addie Camp area. This was the Addie Camp tin mine.
Or at least it was supposed to be. Although they went down over 800 feet, they never found much tin and the mine was closed down.
This is the remains of the Good Luck Tungsten Mine, which was much more successful than the tin mine, but it finally closed down in the 1950’s.
The 1880 Train ride turned out to one of our favorites, and is much recommended.
Later, while we walking around Hill City waiting for our not-to-be Alpine Inn dinner, we came across this two amazing horse sculptures along the sidewalk.
Both done by the same artist, they’re made from junk, springs, tools, even other horses, and faces.
and there was also a smaller one.
Really amazing.
Jan had a good time exploring The Farmer’s Daughter shop right across the street.
And even found her a new moose to add to her collection
Cute.
We’re trying to keep our heads down during the holiday weekend, but we may run into RC to grab a burger at Fuddruckers, and maybe a trip to Home Depot or Lowe’s.
May 26, 2018
Another Day . . .
Going To The Sun.
I just saw an article online about the ongoing plowing of the Going To The Sun Highway in Glacier National Park.
Some years the snow is so heavy that they don’t get the road completely open until July, and this year looks like another one. So I guess we lucked out on our visit in July 2011.
May 26, 2019
Homeward Bound . . .
Before our trip home today we spent several hours last night carefully weighing our luggage over and over.
Did you know a single sox weighs 3 oz.?
We were trying to max our two large checked bags right up to the 50 # limit, finally getting one of them up to 49.9 and the other one right on 50# by using the digital scale we had brought with us.
Then I got my carry-on right up to the 17# limit allowed for them. So then leaving out of travel clothes, I wedged all the rest into Jan’s carry-on, and, holding my breath, weighed it.
25.8 pounds!
Yikes!
Ok, if we each wear 4 shirts, 3 pair of pants, 6 pair of underwear, and 2 pair of shoes, we might get in under the wire. But somehow I don’t think that’s going to work either. Then Jan remembered that when we were checking in at the gate to our Lufthansa flight from Houston to Frankfurt last month they offered to also check in our carry-on’s as well as our big bags.
So Jan had the idea to just check in her carry-on along with her big bag, which means the 25# wouldn’t matter. So with a plan in hand, we were up at 7am, downstairs for breakfast at 8, and sitting in the lobby waiting for our ride by 9:30am.
Advised that we should be at Heathrow Airport 4 hours before our scheduled flight at 14:10, we were there a little before 10. Only to find out that our flight was going to be delayed, but only for about 10 minutes. So no problem.
But after we got through TSA (no cavity’s searched) and were at our gate, we were told the flight had slipped 45 minutes. Then we were told that our plane was late coming in from the States, and we were pushed back an hour. And that caused all the dominos to fall, further screwing over our schedule.
Gates are booked for a flight at a specific time, so if a plane is too early or too late arriving there may be another plane at that gate. Which is why as our flight got pushed back later and later, our specific gate number became ‘iffy’. But finally about an hour and 15 minutes late, we were boarded on our Boeing 787-9 and waiting for push back from the gate.
But that didn’t happen. As our departure got pushed back later and later, we also lost our slot in the flight path that we were scheduled to take home. So a new flight plan had to be calculated and then approved. But that resulted in a longer path home, so we had to take on another 10,000 pounds of jet fuel.
So finally, two hours and 10 minutes late, we were rotating and in the air for a now-10 hour flight.
They were able to make up some time by pushing the speed, staying at 34,000 feet and almost 600 mph for most of the flight, leaving us with views like this.
We finally got into Houston about an hour and 10 minutes late. And after getting through Customs, we met our driver and were on our way back to Santa Fe, getting back to the rig about 10pm.
Safe, sound, and with a lot of really great memories. And totally exhausted.
Now, after we get unpacked and settled in, I’ll start going back and filling in the missing days on our trip of a lifetime.
Stay tuned.
May 26, 2020
Jan’s Happy Place . . .
As part of our recent Restaurant Resurrection Tour, we had brunch this afternoon at Snooze once again, our first visit in a couple of months. Jan had really been jonsing for their Bravacado Toast.
But our next stop was really her Happy Place, the SuperCuts where she finally got her hair cut. And even better, on our way there we made a quick detour past her nail salon and found them open also, so she got a reservation for Thursday afternoon. Now she’s REALLY happy.
Our next stop was at the office to pick some Amazon things that had come in, and then it was down the street to the local HEB for a few things before heading back down to Santa Fe, with a stop at the PO for our mail before finally getting home.
Don’t forget about the SpaceX launch tomorrow afternoon, scheduled for 3:32pm CDT. Taking off from pad 39A, the same one that both the Apollo 11 moon landing and the first Space Shuttle launched from, it will mark both America’s return to space for the first time since the Shuttle was retired in 2011, and the world’s first commercial (non-government) manned launch. It will take two former Shuttle astronauts to the Space Station for an extended stay.
God Speed!
Jan just finished streaming all 5 seasons of Persons of Interest on Netflix with me watching on and off. A really great show, and often just one surprise after the other.
As it got down to the last episode, I realized that I had actually never seen the wrap-up. And it was really good.
And now we’re on a new streaming series that we really liked, Pushing Daisies.
May 26, 2021
Graduation Day . . .
SpaceX put another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit today, which is supposed to complete the first level of the system. Don’t know, but hopefully it means we might be getting our dish/system soon. Crossing my fingers.
Also crossing my fingers that my new phone comes in tomorrow as scheduled. At least that’s what UPS says. And Jan’s also crossing her fingers since she’s excited to get my hand-me-down S8+ to replace her S5 which is now 7 years. Which I think must be about 20 in phone years.
And I’m ready for it since I already my Otterbox and Screen Protector ready to go.
As I mentioned yesterday, we’ve got an appointment at our local NTB tomorrow afternoon to get new tires for our Jeep. And as I always have with our Dodge Dakota, I chose their ‘house brand’ Crosswinds with a 40,000 mile warranty. And once I eliminated all the stuff I didn’t want (Road Hazard Warranty for $20/tire), and didn’t need (TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) Repair Kit) since the Jeep doesn’t have a built-in tire pressure monitoring system, I’m getting the 4 tires installed for $480 out the door.
I could have bumped up to the middle choice, the Mesa AP3’s, with a 50,000 mile warranty, but the 20% added mileage would have cost me 30% more per tire. Not a good trade off. And FWIW both of these tires are made in China, so no change there.
And if I was feeling really spendy, I could have gone with brand name Michelin’s, for more than double the cost of the Crosswinds. Though these are made in the U.S., for some strange reason, they have absolutely no mileage warranty of any kind.
So what’s the point
Tomorrow was the last day of school for Landon this year, and his graduation day from Elementary School. Next year he’ll be in 6th grade, or Middle School, as they call it here.
That’s him, 2nd from the left in the blue shirt.
Somewhere along the line, the grade levels changed since Jan and I were in school. Back then, Elementary School was 1st – 6th, Junior High was 7th and 8th, and High School was 9th-12th. Easy Peezy.
Then somewhere along the way Junior High became Middle School, but the same grades. But now 6th grade has been bumped up to Middle School. So why?
Wrapping up the subject of Landon’s school, Brandi posted this note she got from Landon’s home room teacher.
Just got the sweetest note from Landon’s home room teacher. I asked how he has been doing and if his behavior has improved and she wrote the following:
We have a mutual respect and he knows I think he is pretty amazing. I told him, and I would like to share with you that he has the soul of a writer. I keep thinking back to the beginning of the year when he refused to write and I dreaded giving him a writing assignment because he would fight me tooth and nail on it. Now, I cannot get him to stop writing. He has such an amazing imagination and his voice rings out in everything that he writes. With his art skills he could illustrate his own books. I told him when he publishes his first book, I would like him to mention me in the dedication. Ha!
I will truly miss him next year and hope he will keep in touch and let me know how he is doing!
Awww. So sweet. Even with the “White Sarcasm” gene going strong!!
And she’s right about the “White Sarcasm’ gene too.
May 26, 2022
A Night In Slidell . . .
We were on our way this morning a few minutes before 9, with our first stop at the Baytown Buc-ee’s about 45 minutes later for coffee, kolaches, and gas.
Overall the trip was pretty smooth with very nice weather the entire way. The only problem was coming into Covington where we lost about 30 minutes for one of those phantom slowdowns, supposedly for a construction zone. But the traffic just crept along at 5-10 mph for 30 minutes and then just sped up.
Who knows?
We got to our La Quinta in Slidell about 4pm, but first stopped at the Cracker Barrel right next door for dinner. And along the way I picked up this cute Flamingo Pillow for Jan.
In fact flamingos seem to be in this year, since CB had an entire section devoted them. We’ll have to go back soon.
A while after we got in the room, Jennifer, our Karma sitter sent this photo over of Karma making herself at home.
Tomorrow it’s on up to Athens, AL with a lunch stop at Weidman’s in Meridian, MS along the way.
Really looking forward to seeing everyone.
